The board will now convene an open meeting. Today is December 17, 2012 and the time is 7.39 p.m.
Katy ISD · Regular Board Meeting
Katy ISD Regular Board Meeting, December 17, 2012
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The board met earlier this evening in closed meeting. Any action arising from discussions in a closed meeting must be taken in a subsequent open meeting.
This is a meeting open to the public, not a meeting of the public. There are students and other guests present.
To maintain decorum, respectful behavior is expected. Disruptive behavior and or
comments will not be allowed. The KDISD Board of Trustees meets monthly in a
regular meeting, generally to receive reports from the staff and to take
action on recommendations from the superintendent. Whereas there may not be
lengthy discussions or a litany of questions tonight, please know we have
have had the agenda for over a week. As a board, we've reviewed each item in a public
work study session with the administrative team where we were able to ask and receive
answers to our questions. Thus, as a board, we should have appropriate knowledge and should
be prepared for our responses regarding the content of this meeting tonight. Mr. Fraley,
will you verify that we are in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings
law in regard to notice for this meeting.
Madam President, we are in
compliance. Items
two and three will be moved to the end of the meeting
for consideration by the Board.
Item four is a notice to propose
no renewal of an employee's term contract.
Madam President. Mr. Maholsky.
I move that the Board approve the recommendation
of the Superintendent to propose the non-renewal
of the employee whose name is
attached and give notice to the employee
that it is proposed that the employee's term
contract be non-renewed at the end of its
term. It is further
I further recommend that the board authorize the board president to notify the employee of this proposed action to non-renew the employee's term contract at the conclusion of the 2012-2013 school year pursuant to section 21.201 to 21-21.211 of the Texas Education Code.
I have a motion by Brian Mahalski, a second by Bill Proctor, that the board approve the
recommendation of the superintendent to propose the non-renewal of the employee whose name
is attached and give notice to the employee that it is proposed that the employee's term
contract be non-renewed at the end of its term.
It is further recommended that the board authorize the board president to notify the employee
of this proposed action to non-renew the employee's term contract at the conclusion of the 2012-2013
school year pursuant to section 21.201-21.211 of the Texas Education Code.
Is there any discussion?
Hearing none, we'll proceed to vote.
All in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion carries 7-0.
Madam President, this is the naming of a principal for Morton Ranch High School.
The recommendation is Mr. Lee Cruz.
Madam President.
Mr. Huckabee.
I'd like to recommend that the board name Lee Cruz as the principal for Morton Ranch High School.
I have a motion by Terry Huckabee, a second by Charles Griffin, that the board name Lee
Cruz as principal for Morton Ranch High School.
Is there any discussion?
Hearing none, we'll proceed to vote.
All in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Any opposed?
The motion carries seven to zero.
Mr. President, the last item is the hiring and accepting of resignations of professional
contractual personnel.
Madam President.
Mr. Adam.
I move the board of trustees to approve.
personnel report is recommended by the superintendent.
Second.
I have a motion by Mr. Adams, a second by Mr. DeBraille that the board approves the
personnel report as recommended by the superintendent.
Any discussion?
Hearing none, we'll proceed to vote.
All in favor, raise your right hand to say aye.
Motion carries 7-0.
Just before we go into the pledge portion of our evening, I would like to ask everyone,
one. You may notice that many of us are wearing green,
which is the color, the school colors
for Sandy Hook Elementary.
Please join me in a moment of silence for the victims and their families of
this tragedy.
Thank you.
Our hearts go out to this sweet community in Connecticut.
And we are just so very grateful for the teachers, principals, staff, parents, and students
who come to KDISD every day and get an incredible education.
Thank you for sharing your children with us
and for teachers and staff who keep our children safe.
And we appreciate all that you do, and we love our babies.
Now it's time for our pledge.
Mr. Fraley?
The pledge will be led today by Noah Tumblinson,
a student at Nottingham Country Elementary.
So, Noah, we're under your direction.
Will all please stand, please?
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, one indivisible.
Okay folks, this is again Mr. Noah Tumlinson, a fifth grader at Nottingham Country Elementary where Ms. Marlene Bourgeois is the proud principal there.
Sitting on the front row there.
And Noah's parents are Patrick and Jennifer Tumlinson.
I bet someone's here.
He has a sister, Nicole Tumlinson.
There, she's right on the front row, loving her brother.
His special interests, he loves PC gaming and skateboarding.
His favorite subjects are science and reading.
and a quote about Noah from one of his teachers that Noah is a remarkable
student he always has a smile on his face let me say there it is and is
willing to help others he's a very hard worker and we're very proud to have him
at NCE this is from Miss Webb know who that is no miss webb who's mrs. Webb all
right she knows you and loves you anyway huh okay no I'm glad to have you sir
anything you want to say to us?
yes
hi my name is Noah Tumlinton
and I am from Nottingham Elementary
I have attended Nottingham
since I was in kindergarten
Nottingham is a great school
we have a lot of fun activities
since kindergarten
like Spice Day and we have a lot of
field trips
my favorite activity at Nottingham
was this year when I attended the aerospace program
I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot about the space program in science
Nottingham also has great teachers I am really happy I've gotten to go here and
I will miss it next year when I'm in junior high
Well, Noah, glad to have you and have a very special presentation for you.
I'm going to come in too.
I don't know.
Thank you, Brandon.
Noah, it's great to hear you up here tonight and talking about your school and being very brave and getting the Pledge of Allegiance.
The great thing about your school is that's where my children went to school as well, and I live in Nottingham.
and it's a great school and several of us were there when the marquee was
dedicated that bright light out front the other day right the start of school
so that's really nice there but what we want to do is we want to give you this
special bag here you only get this you only get this by coming up and being
very brave and doing the pledges for us and telling us a little about your
school then also here is a little bit of a recognition for you signed by the
President and by the Secretary as well, Mr. DeBrell, and so you can put this up
in your room. But again, we thank you for being here tonight and thank you for
being a student and play the ISD and at Nottingham Elementary. Thank you very much.
There you go.
It's good.
Thank you.
Good job.
Good job.
Thank you.
Do we have any scouts here this evening?
If so, would you please stand up?
Any scouts here this evening?
All righty.
Thank you.
Oh.
Oh, here we are. Okay, okay.
All right.
Well, before you sit down, you have to give us your name, your troop number, and what badge you guys are working on.
Well, my name is James Oliver. I'm from Troop 12A8.
And I'm in the Troop 12A8.
On something.
I'm Derek Kitzel, I'm also from 1288 and I'm from the Office of Education.
Excellent.
For the gate, we'll try to have you guys home by midnight.
At this time we'll have our public hearing.
Debbie Harris, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, will give a brief report
on the reporting progress in meeting highly qualified teacher requirements for No Child Left Behind.
Afterwards, the Board of Trustees will receive public input regarding this topic.
Dr. Harris, please begin.
Thank you, Madam President, Board, and Mr. Fraley.
I would like to acknowledge three of my staff that are here.
They're very instrumental in putting this together.
Dr. Howard, Mr. Baskerville, and Mr. Rhodes, they're helping in the back tonight, so thank you.
This is the annual compliance report.
No Child Left Behind from 2002-2003 was the first year of implementation.
Districts had to be staffed at 100% with HQ teachers and that was in 2005-2006 and the
HQ status of special ed teachers was also added at that time.
Highly qualified, a teacher meets the NCLB definition if the teacher has a full state
certification and a bachelor's degree or higher and demonstrated competency by
mastering the content area teaks through a combination of college hours
professional development and years of experience in CLB HQ versus state
certifications that when you're certified does not mean your HQ in the
federal standing so there is a discrepancy there teachers who are
allowed to teach certain courses under state certification assignment may not
meet what they required by the HQ.
K-teachers teaching K-courses for Fine Arts or Science
credit must be highly qualified in those areas.
And these are the areas that are the core academics that
have to meet the HQ requirement.
We could have a teacher come in from out of state that's
certified, let's say, in Kansas, but they're not HQ in Texas
until they have completed their certification testing process.
So that takes some time.
times. NCVL public reporting and 1213 compliance was due November 26th and based on the status
of beginning of the year and we keep updating this throughout the year as I'll talk about
as we go through this initial report. 2007 beyond district must ensure that low income
and minority students are not taught at higher rates than other teacher groups by inexperience
are not highly qualified staff. As you can see, we stay in the 99% ranges. This is for
the current year. We're at 99.44%. That represents every class period that we have to look at
and that's over several thousand class periods. Special education, this year we have one teacher
that is not certified, they are certified but they don't meet the HQ requirements in a particular content area.
Classes taught at high poverty schools with HQ teachers at 99.99% this year.
HQ regular education teachers, to let you know that's 10 teachers across the district that do not meet HQ.
Four of those are teachers that principals have assigned to classes that gives them more
flexible options on their campus.
Like a math teacher may teach part of a science course if they have that background or in
some of those areas, but they are certified in some content areas.
HQ special education teachers, again, it's 98.50 that we have one teacher.
All our elementaries are completely HQ.
This is all the 10 teachers are in the secondary courses.
Receiving highly qualified professional development, our staff development offers lots of quality
staff development, so we believe that's 100%.
What happens next?
The individual plans for the teacher, not currently, HQ are being developed, and that's
in concert with the principal, the teacher, and an HR representative.
A focused data analysis will determine equity in each teacher experience in HQ between high
high and low minority and high and low poverty campuses.
A district HQ teacher continuous improvement plan
will be written and submitted to TEA by December 21.
And TEA will take additional snapshot on HQ data
at the end of the year.
I can tell you of the 10, four have already taken their test
and now are HQ.
But when we initially reported the information,
that was not true.
Questions and answers?
Mr. Madam President.
Ms. Griffin.
Mr. Ma'am, how long does it usually take to take a teacher to get them to the
HQ status?
Ms. It depends on the teacher.
If they move in the first of the year, we're constantly trying to work with them, get them
some courses to prepare for the Texas test.
It just depends on how many classes or .
But usually by the end of the year we have that done.
We encourage them to do that before we offer them a contract for the next year.
So we're monitoring very closely.
Thank you.
Dr. Proctor.
You mentioned if someone came in from another state, they could be HQ in that state and not in this unit.
So this is a federal program.
Yes, sir.
This is a federal program.
Yes, sir.
I won't go into my make work federal program speech.
But we're very proud of our staff.
Yes, sir.
My comment is being HQ in Mississippi may not be all it's cracked up to be.
Anybody from Mississippi, please contact Dr. Proctor.
State has different standards with their tests.
Dr. Proctor, I'm just saying.
I know.
We're grateful for the high standards of Texas.
Mr. Harrell, you have a question?
Dr. Harris, since this is a federal program,
do they provide any dollars for the additional training we are required to give these teachers?
Dr. Kasky, there's some money that helps us train some staff.
Do you want to speak to that?
There's a portion of our Title II funds that are used for professional development,
and so HR actually has a portion of our Title II funds to pay for that training.
And the rest comes from?
Federal.
Just so.
I believe we did not have anyone sign up.
No questions.
We have no one signed up for the hearing,
so this concludes our public hearing on highly qualified.
Thank you, Dr. Harris.
Thank you.
Okay.
Okay. This time we'll have our recognitions. Mr. Stanford from Communications is coming forward.
Mr. DeBrell.
Good evening, Madam President, board members, and Superintendent Fraley.
The Texas Music Administrators Conference is a state professional organization for those serving as music supervisors throughout Texas.
Just recently they announced the winner of their prestigious award and we're happy to announce that it was one of our own.
I would like to introduce to you the Texas Music Administrators Conference 2012 Texas Music Administrator of the Year,
Mrs. Mitzi Jones, KDISD Assistant Director of Fine Arts.
Mitzi, come on up.
Just a little bit about Ms. Jones.
She has served as Assistant Director of Fine Arts in Katy ISD since 1998.
The Texas Music Administrator of the Year Award recognizes her for outstanding service
and dedication to the local music teachers students and community she will
be recognized during the 2013 Texas Music Educators Association annual
clinic and convention this February in San Antonio congratulations once again
like to also add that part of that is an endurance award who she works with
upstairs and second also she told me how to play a violin last year and I
performed last December in Chicago because she told me how to hold it how
to play it and thing was only that is a two string part I had so thank you very
much ma'am you very well deserving and she's married to Michael Katie I see
employers double endurance good to have and several of our music educators are
here tonight you what we meet here every month come back hang out yeah it's good
Good to see you all.
OK, at this time, we'll have our public forum portion
of our school board meeting.
That means I have to turn over here.
Excuse me.
Open forum.
At this time, the board of trustees
will hear from patrons who wish to speak.
By board policy, a maximum of 30 minutes
have been allotted for this forum.
The time allowed will be equally divided
among those requesting to speak, but no presentation
presentation may exceed five minutes. Delegations of more than five persons shall have appointed
one person to present their views before the board. Individuals who have written comments
to present to the board are encouraged to provide the statements to the Director of
Communications, Steve Stanford, at the back corner of the room. These written statements
will be presented to the board. In order to ensure equity for all speakers, if a speaker
does not fully utilize his or her allotted time, it will not affect the allotted time
of other speakers. Patrons may address the board on any issue. However, due to posting requirements
of the Open Meetings Act, the board is unable to respond to a presentation that is not directly
related to a posted agenda item. For clarification purpose, the Open Public Forum is not a dispute
resolution forum. The board is not trying to prevent any patron from speaking. The intent is
to redirect patrons to the proper grievance process so that action can be taken. When
When employees or members of the public who wish to express complaints about a student or district personnel are reminded they must follow and exhaust all administrative remedies prior to presenting complaints to the board.
If a person who has signed up to speak is not certain as to what complaint procedures to be followed, there are a number of administrators present who can provide you with this information.
Again, talk to Mr. Steve Stanford, Director for Communications.
AS I ANNOUNCE YOUR NAME, PLEASE COME TO THE MIC, STATE YOUR NAME, TELL THE BOARD WHETHER
OR NOT YOU RESIDE IN KDISD AND WHETHER OR NOT YOU HAVE CHILDREN CURRENTLY ATTENDING
KDISD.
TONIGHT, WE HAVE 17 SPEAKERS.
YOU WILL BE ALLOWED ONE MINUTE AND 45 SECONDS EACH.
NORMALLY, WE GIVE A ONE-MINUTE NOTICE WHEN YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE LEFT, BUT BECAUSE YOU'RE
ALMOST ALREADY AT ONE MINUTE, WE'LL PROBABLY JUST WAVE THAT AND KNOW THAT YOU'RE ALMOST
DONE.
so okay rush Sheldon rush sell then your first good evening mr. Seldon we're glad
you're here your time starts once you start speaking not once you start
walking so that's good thank you dr. Fraley and board for this opportunity to
speak my name is rush Seldon and yes I'm a resident of Katy and I do have a lot
of kids in this school I'm here to speak on the districting map I'm a resident of
68C and it's a purchase that we made based significantly on the on the
schools that we've researched and schools to which my kids will be
districted. We have four children, the younger two, sixth grade and third grade.
We hope will go to Seven Lakes because they've been Spartans since birth.
They've been indoctrinated by their older siblings, they've attended hundreds
of events and concerts and activities. They know that school better than I do.
They're aware from the siblings of the excellence that school
school requires and they're aware of it and they intend to achieve it and maintain those standards.
So I ask you tonight to trust your administrators and your advisors.
Support the map that's been distributed for months.
It's based on a tried and true feeder system.
It makes KISD the finest district in the country.
Do not take chances on any other research regarding splintering,
which might be contradictory to other research,
which makes it contradictory at best and maybe wrong at worst.
Don't experiment with our kids.
Rely on reality and experience.
The feeder system works.
We should not risk change unless that change is based on proven,
uncontradicted results.
The experts hired by the district have crafted and support the current map.
It's based on principles which have created excellence in this district,
so we ask you to support it.
Last, I thank you, Ms. Fox, for your comments.
I think they were quoted in the paper for stating our feelings in this troubled time.
As that paper stated, you're not comfortable sending a small group of students to a high school without a peer group.
Thank you, Mr. Seldon.
Thank you for sharing your time with us.
Scott Callahan is our next speaker. Good evening Mr. Callahan. Welcome. How are you? Fine, thank you. My name is Scott Callahan. My wife and I live in Bayou Pines which is part of 68C. We have three daughters, the oldest of whom is six years old and she goes to Griffin. The other two go to Primrose on Peak Road.
This past year, you may recall that the board rezoned our children to go from Kilpatrick to Griffin.
And we were assured in doing that that that would provide a pure feeder system from Griffin to Beckendorf to Seven Lakes.
We were also assured that that would prevent splintering.
So here we are in front of you again because as I understand it someone or a
few members may be suggesting that 68C be splintered. What I'm hearing you ask
if that is in fact the case is that you would take out of 540 kids going from
eighth grade to second to Seven Lakes you would take 35 of our children and
move them to a brand new school high school number seven there is no worse
feeling for a child than to feel alone and that is what you were asking of 68 C
I cannot believe for one minute that this is the best option that this group
could come up with I refuse to believe that stick with the pure feeder be
Be consistent.
Keep your word.
We trusted you.
Don't betray our trust.
I, like Mr. Selden, moved out here.
Sorry, Mr. Callahan, that annoying sound
means the minute and 45 is gone.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.
We did trade that nicer ring-ring-ring for the from previous. Brian Byrd is our next speaker.
Mr. Byrd, welcome. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you for giving us this opportunity. I'm
Brian Byrd. I'm also a resident of Bayou Pines. I have a twin boy and girl. They both go to Griffin
presently. They were at OKE last year. I share Scott's sentiment and I'm not
going to repeat it but I want to build upon what he said. The current plan as I
understand it which has been supported by the administration unfortunately will
split up the Cross Creek neighborhood but that split is approximately a 60-40%
split which allows a large pool of children to migrate to the high school
7 together, whereas the proposed 68C splintering would have approximately 4%
of our children going off on their own to high school 7, which we feel is
totally inappropriate and contrary to the assurances that we had last year. So
I'm going to encourage you and urge you to stay with the administrative plan. It
68C. I know we don't have a huge voice in terms of numbers, but we're a small stable community and
the appropriate thing to do would be to ratify the administrative plan. I ask you to
uphold your responsibility as trustees for the entire district and in the interest of the entire district
support the administrative plan. Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Bird. Thank you Mr. Bird. Our next speaker is Hannah Puris. Did I get your
name close? Okay good. We're glad you're here. Go ahead.
Hi my name's Hannah. I live in 68C. I'm 13 years old and I've lived in Katy my entire
life I understand that you may be considering rezoning us to the new high
school I want to give you a kid's perspective as we are the ones that the
rezoning is going to actually affect I have an older brother at Seven Lakes and
so I will have the choice of grandfathering but I'm here to tell you
how difficult it would be to be rezoned to a school where I would have no
friends I have gone to go Patrick then Beckendorf and all my friends are part
of the other 500 plus that are zoned to Seven Lakes I'm socially involved at
Beckendorf as I am a cheerleader and played volleyball, basketball, and JHS and
let me tell you even though I'm involved in many activities in school it is hard
to make new friends. I think that we all struggle to fit in one way or another.
I'm speaking on behalf of the others my age and younger who are too nervous to
speak and won't be able to be grandfathered. They will be forced to
start high school without knowing anyone even though they have lived here most
likely their entire lives. They will be placed into a situation where they will
will be forced to start over and try to fit in.
There is a reason it is good to go through the system
with the same people as it builds confidence
and creates a sense of belonging.
I beg you to remember your high school years.
It is hard enough to find your place where you belong,
but if you're asked to completely start over,
even though you've not moved to a new area,
it is completely and plain unfair.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you, Hannah.
Our next speaker is Janet Bird.
Hi, Mrs. Bird.
Hi.
How are you doing?
Great.
I do live in Katy and I have 10-year-old twins that go to school at Griffin.
And I just wanted to talk a little bit about the rezoning of last year, which I know you
all have already heard.
But what happened was the ABM process for Elementary 33
was drawn out with multiple proposals that bounced our zone
between OKE and Griffin.
After a public workshop and a survey input,
our zone was assured to stay at OKE
because of our valid safety concerns of crossing
Cinco Ranch Boulevard.
Then at the final board meeting to approve the ABM,
the last minute change was ratified,
which sent 68C to Griffin.
the amendment was due to board members concerns splinter in Kings Lake which
was 68 a from elementary to junior high I think everybody here in this room
would agree that splintering is a bad idea as you are forced to start a new
school with few or no friends we were asking you to please give our kids the
same considerations as you did for the kids at Kings Lake we are told that 68 C
would benefit going to Griffin because Griffin feeds to beckendorf and
and Beckendorf would feed the Seven Lakes.
It appears that the board may reverse a decision
at a very critical junction and send a small group of our kids
from 68C to another high school.
We respectfully disagree with this proposal.
We are asking you to please vote with the administration's
original plan.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you Mrs. Bird. Our next speaker is John McCauley. Good evening Mr. McCauley, welcome.
Good evening, my name is John McCauley. I have three kids that go to Katy ISD schools. I'm part
of 68C and what I'm going to address tonight is the board's responsibility to the parents and the
the things that you say and do and how they affect us. Last board meeting an
individual stated that Cinco Ranch Boulevard is a natural boundary and that
natural boundary didn't seem to matter when our kids were moved across that
natural boundary from OKE to Griffin. More importantly those kids had to you
know endure meeting new friends and was for general purposes the move wasn't all
that bad. However, when I come to the move from Beckendorf to a brand new school, I think
the splintering situation is going to be somewhat damaging to our children. Somebody mentioned
that there's research out there that demonstrates that splintering is not damaging. And there's
a gentleman named Harold Hodgkinson who is considered to be the number one demographer
in the country. I called Mr. Hodgkinson and actually asked him one question. And the question
I asked him was if 510 550 schools kids went from one school 540 or she'd be
510 went to one high school and 40 were left behind and went to another high
school he said I said what actually happened to those 40 kids and his answer
was well 10 would not do so well and 30 would do okay and so that's a 25%
failure rate for those 10 kids I don't want that 25% to be my kids more
more importantly the only way the 30 could be successful would be that the
school the administration would have to swoop in and actually provide more
resources than already exist we are in a very constrained resource environment
now
Thank you Mr. McCauley. Our next speaker is Mike Hereforth. Hi Mr. Hereforth. Good evening,
I'm Mike Hereforth, here representing 68C and a graduate of the Mississippi Public Education
education system.
I just want to take a few minutes to kind of talk about who my neighbors and I are.
We're a minority group, it's been mentioned, that seemed to be a little bit of a political
football to this board in recent years.
I don't know if that was intentional when 68C was designed, but we're not going to be
treated like faceless, voiceless chat.
68C, we play an enormous amount of property taxes mostly to support these schools.
We employ hundreds of people in the Katy area.
We go to church in Katy with family, friends, neighbors.
We spend the majority of our hard-earned money in Katy to support businesses owned by other
Katy residents.
68C is a stable neighborhood and as such we've documented and studied the demographic trends
which fit the Griffin, the Beckendorf, the Seven Lakes feeder and we just encourage you
guys to ratify what's out there, the administration's plan.
I for one when I moved in to Katy Texas from Alabama had a son went to school
with your lovely daughter and he's a graduate of Seven Lakes High School and
his little you know brother and sister that was their dream that's what they
want to do is follow Big Brother's footsteps and that's what we expected we
moved in the neighborhood and we want them to have the opportunity to do so so
you know our request is simple please allow our kids the same opportunity that
that we thought they'd have and that our siblings have had and please again
ratify.
Thank You Mr. Hurforth for being here. Our next speaker is Tori Cockendall.
Good evening thank you for being here. Good evening board members and fellow
community members my name is Tori Kuykendall I do live in Katy ISD I live
in 68 C as well and have a sixth grader at Beckendorf junior high I had a
longer speech written but I don't want to bore you with hearing things that
you've already heard so I just want to put a couple of points before you that
haven't been brought up this board during the process over the summer
decided to use three avenues for public input, changing the process from last year where we had public forums and meetings.
And a reason for that was so that smaller groups weren't bullied by larger groups that could bring more people to the table.
Your decision to use the three avenues for communication this year was one that was agreed upon by all of you at the end of the day.
and after that community feedback period of a full month and after the expert
demographers that you've already employed have gotten a chance to look at
all the community feedback the recommendation is to keep the ABM as it
was recommended from the beginning I see no reason to change that you guys
develop the process and we ask that you honor your own processes honor the
wishes of this community that said the feedback in the feedback that our top
top priority is feeder patterns and not splintering. Thank you so much for your time and we at
68C hope that you will continue to have Beckendorf be a pure feeder to Seven Lakes now and in
the future.
Thank you, Mrs. Cockendall. Our next speaker is Steve Smith. Hi, Mr. Smith.
My name is Steve Smith. I'm a resident of 75G, which is Somerset. I have three sons. One's a junior at Seven Lakes High School, another's at Beckendorf, and the youngest is at Griffin.
Griffin. And I'm here to speak about the attendance boundary modification that we've been talking
about tonight so far. We've experienced changing boundaries for many years at Cinco Ranch and
other planned communities, continued their growth westward. The most recent change for
my family came earlier this year when my youngest son was rezoned from Kilpatrick to Griffin.
And it was our understanding that this boundary change was required to establish a stable
feeder network from schools feeding Beckendorf junior high and then in
turn ensuring a stable student body for from Beckendorf to Seven Lakes.
It's my opinion that splitting Beckendorf 87-13% is is not the best
solution. It's unfortunate that the Seven Lakes junior high is drawing from a
student body that's in an area that's still under development. This instability
in the attendance zone is something that my neighborhood has endured similarly in
in the past eight years.
I certainly appreciate the frustration
that the new area residents that presented the adjustment.
But Beckendorf Junior High is now
drawing from a student body in an area that's
been able to stabilize and remain stable going forward,
hopefully.
So splitting the junior high is not the desirable solution.
And I'm not sure why we're considering an adjustment
to the proposed boundaries that would
expand that undesirable condition between two junior
highs.
and it's my opinion that the board should be working to assure that this
undesirable situation isn't is minimized and whenever it does occur is terminated
as
thank you mr. Smith our next speaker is Pawan Gupta good evening mr. Gupta
Welcome. Good evening board members of the board and everyone present here. I am
Pawan Gupta. I'm a KT resident and I have two kids one going into Bekendorf and
the younger one in Griffin. Just wanted to let everyone know yes my younger one
did got rezone last last year from Kilpatrick to Griffin and yes he did
lose some friends, four of them in the process and it's around approximately
six months now and I still feel the void. I can see that in his eyes every day. So
yes I'm a resident, I didn't mention I'm a resident of 75 G, the Somerset
neighborhood and only points I want to stress one is maintain pure feeder
systems. Let the kids in Griffin go to back end off and 100% of the back end
should go to Seven Lakes. Second, I mean I know you get hard-pressed to make some
decisions. The other alternates which my friends would have already looked at, one
could be take a look at the future probabilities. Which areas you
think are most probable to get rezoned to the new high school anyway and look
at those areas and if you have if you're hard-pressed to make decision move those
those areas to the new high school. And then the third point I wanted to say was I understand
moving out 75G from the back end off to the high school 7 is the reason that some other
new neighborhood is being added to the pool. I mean you can add it but don't add it to
the expense of already established neighborhood to take them out and move. So thank you.
Laura Lowe is our next speaker.
Hi Mrs. Lowe, we're glad you're here.
Good evening.
My name is Laura Lowe.
I have five children in KDISD.
I've got an oldest in junior high, three in elementary school, and in three years I'll
I'll have one in high school, one in junior high, and three in elementary school.
So I have a very vested interest in what's happening with this attendance boundary modification.
And there are logical reasons that I have concerns.
I live in 74 PG, Pine Hills, Pine Forest, Cinco Ranch area.
And logical reasons for me, first of all, the traffic patterns.
I will have children at a junior high and high school, much like other parents in that area,
and having to go to both schools for after-school activities, not being close
to each other, that will be an impact on myself and many other parents. Another
impact that we've noticed, and it's been referenced through the night, our Pine
Hills area has had an elementary school shift, a junior high shift, and now
potentially a high school shift in just the last year or two. And so there are
logical reasons, the feeder system that we need to consider, you're taking these
these students who have gone to Seven Lakes Junior High and channeling them to the new
high school, for me it comes down to an emotional plea.
I have children who we just moved here from New Mexico.
They're adjusting to a life here and we're being asked to uproot our children in just
a couple years without having to move, but uproot them and send, from what I understand,
just 48 students to a new high school to be splintered again to have to make new friends.
and while I have full confidence in the academic abilities of the school I
believe that social impact is very significant at this age and that
networking that social support is crucial and so I hope that you will
consider that as you look into this modification thank you
Thank You Mrs. Lowe may I ask a question for clarification Mrs. Lowe your
Your children attend Seven Lakes Junior High,
for their junior high, and your comment was 48 students
from Seven Lakes Junior High will attend the high school?
In Miami, Miami, and the Pine Hill area,
there are 48 students who will be expected
to attend the new high school.
So 48 students right now are attending Junior High
at Seven Lakes.
Okay.
Expected to attend Seven Lakes High.
From your land use zone, not a total,
not a total number from Seven Lakes Junior High.
Thank you for that clarification.
Our next speaker is Seth Sidhu.
Hi Mr. Sidhu, welcome back. Good to see you. Good to see you.
President, board members, my name is Seth Sidhu. I'm a resident of Cinco Ranch, area 74P.
I have two kids going to KISD. One is going to Seven Lakes Junior High, who was at Wood Creek before.
So this is the third time she's being moved.
The other one already moved once.
So I have a couple points like last time.
One is the same thing, the kids being bounced around.
And by the time they make friends, they get familiar with the school, then they get moved.
But my second point is the proximity.
From 74P, Seven Lakes High School is 1.5 miles and these kids are being moved to
High School 7 which is 3.5 miles so the distance is more than
doubled. So I don't need to remind anybody over here how important the
safety of the kids in the school is. Everybody knows. Now our responsibility
is not the safety of kids only in the school, but the kids going to school too.
So kids are approaching the school whether it if they are walking or biking
how soon or quickly they get to the school is important also. So the safety
outside is equally important as the inside the school. Yeah we can lock our
schools and all that kind of stuff we can secure our schools but we need to
think about how long does it take for a kid from a house to the school. If a whole bunch
of kids are walking on the street or walking in the groups, similar incidents can happen.
Then once again, we don't need to wait until that's .
Thank you Mr. Sitton for being here. Our next speaker is Varshal Sawadi.
how bad did I do on your name good evening mr. Sawati we're glad you're
here I belong to KTISD school district my daughters is in fifth grade my
younger one is not yet in the school but he will soon be there my reckon our
Our request here is for Pine Hills and Pine Forest.
Right now we rezoned from Stanley to Schaefer, Wood Creek
to Seven Lakes Junior High.
And now we are going to also have a rezoning from Seven
Lakes High to the new high school.
As Satpinder had mentioned, safety is one of the aspects.
I don't want to go through that once again.
but looking at the essential community values of safety and physical responsibility like, you know, cost of transportation of buses from 1.5 miles to 3 miles, quality of life over there, and then building efficiency, right?
So looking at all of these aspects, we would recommend, we just request you all of the board members that please take into consideration the safety of the kids into account, you know,
while you make the decision from the distance point of view so you know I
would request you to please consider the pine hills and pine forest 74 PNG to
look into the distance aspect of it for safety aspect of it fiscal
responsibilities and equities to make your decision thank you thank you mr.
Mr. Sawati, our next speaker is Cliff Cornell.
Mr. Cornell, you don't want to talk about attendance boundaries.
Welcome.
I seem to be the only one.
Thank you.
I'm a 32-year resident of Katy Independent School Districts and a product of the organization.
I have three kids in Katy ISD, and what I want to talk about is the proposed calendar year for 2013-2014.
As it is now, we're starting late in August where previously we had started earlier in the year.
What that's causing is a lot of education to be trying to cram into a small period of time.
Then you have the Christmas break, and then you have an extended period of time in spring where things stretch out.
The kids start to get tired. The educators start to get tired. The parents start to get tired.
And it takes you into late into the summer before you're able to start getting a break again.
and it's a time when it's more conducive to be out in the neighborhoods.
So what I'd like the board to do is reconsider the start date of the academic year,
bring it back to where it was two weeks earlier in August, a week earlier in August,
so that the kids can get out at an earlier time.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Cornell.
Mr. Fraley, do we have any flexibility on the start date?
No, actually, I agree with the speaker,
but the state dictates when school starts nowadays unfortunately so right
now we don't have legislatively the authority to begin prior to what the
date that state sets in terms of when it must begin I do hear you know to
appreciate you call your legislators our next speaker is Krista Williams hi
Hi Mrs. Williams, we're glad you're here.
Good evening everyone.
I live in the Katy ISD area, section 74 PNG, Pine Hills and Pine Forest.
We moved to this great area last year and my son, I have two children, one in the sixth
and one in the seventh.
My son attended Wood Creek last year and he's now at Seven Lakes Junior High.
Excited about that change, actually I called the school district prior to moving here and was informed indeed that that would happen and we would feed into the high school.
As we got comfortable with Wood Creek, I started to express some concerns with the principal saying, I'm not really sure, we just moved, he settled, now we're transferring schools.
schools. She says, no, this is great. We're establishing feeder patterns. And I really
would like to ask the board to honor that. The feeder pattern was supposed to be from
the Seven Lakes Junior High to the high school. And that's not happening. There's 48 students
in our area is what we have counted at this point. Forty-eight. My son is losing about
80% of his friends because everybody's going to the high school but him. I don't think
I think that's fair.
I think that's an emotional distress that he should not have to endure.
And I'm really concerned about that.
We prior to purchasing our home, we did our research.
We had relocation specialists working for my husband's company.
This is where we wanted to go to school.
So I would ask you to really reconsider.
Forty-eight students is not going to hurt Seven Lakes High School.
And it's just a small area.
If you look at your map, you've just cut us out.
everybody else is going but just our little community which is 48 students at
this point so we would just ask you to reconsider and oh I guess I'm done thank
you please consider thank you mrs. Williams our next speaker is Jill Rota
Jill, am I saying your name right?
Roja?
What?
Someone gave up on us this evening and left early maybe.
Okay, how about Kevin Snow?
Hi, Mr. Snow.
We're glad you're here.
Hi, thank you for this chance to speak.
I do live in Katy ISD.
I have an eighth grader and a sixth grader at Seven Lakes Junior High,
and I have a first grader at Stanley Elementary.
I live one block from Seven Lakes High School in the recommendation.
I'm currently in the middle of it.
If you look at the current structure, when we moved here this past summer from California,
we specifically picked Katy because of the education.
We specifically picked the schools that we wanted, Stanley, Seven Lakes, Seven Lakes,
and moved into the middle of that zone thinking that we were safe,
knowing there was a new high school being picked.
But the L-shaped cutout that has been designed for Pine Forest, which is where I live, to go to the new high school means that now my daughters who have made friends with their neighbors two, three blocks away, which are most of their friends who are staying at Seven Lakes.
I agree with the feeder pattern.
My kids are at Seven Lakes Junior High.
You'd think they could go to the high school next door.
They do band concerts at the high school.
They play sports at the high school.
There's all kinds of partnerships with the high schools.
Great.
Yet, they're being told they have to go to a different high school.
It's a mile and a third to Seven Lakes High School.
It's two and a third to the new high school.
They can walk safely down Fry Road to my house.
It's not safe, and it's certainly many different roads to get from the new high school.
I just ask you to reconsider that Pine Forest area to stay at Seven Lakes High School.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Snow.
No.
That concludes our public forum portion of our meeting.
Madam President, we have your consideration of consent agenda items 1 through 18.
May I pull the calendar to ask a question?
Is that one of the consent items?
Yes, by all means.
Consent.
Which one is that one?
I believe.
Which one is that that you want to pull up, Dr. Parker?
Dr. Proctor, would it be something we could talk about during the discussion portion?
Can we just have the motion and the second?
You don't want to discuss consent.
Yeah, there's no discussion.
You've got to pull it.
Okay, we'll pull it.
So it will be items 1 through 18 with exception number 11.
Second.
Second.
Okay.
Okay.
We have a motion by Mr. Adams and a second by Dr. Proctor
to approve the consent agenda as recommended in items 1 through 18,
with the exception of number 11.
Is there any discussion?
No, no discussion.
All in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
I'm sorry.
Item 12, item 11.
So if you pull 11, you need to pull 12.
Oh, good luck.
Yeah.
Okay.
Mr. President?
Whatever.
Okay.
Mr. Adams has amended his motion, and Dr. Proctor has changed his motion.
Bill Proctor, Joe Adams, anybody else does it, and that's it.
Okay.
I have a motion by Mr. Adams, a second by Bill Proctor,
that the Board of Trustees approve the consent agenda as recommended in items 1 through 18,
with the exceptions of 11 and 12.
Now we'll proceed to vote.
All in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion carries 7 to 0.
Dr. Proctor, number 11.
Yeah, just a question on the calendar.
Terry brought it up last time, and I might be pretty slow on the uptake,
but we have elementary schools open during in their sites for elections and
Terry mentioned could could we have that as an early release day whatever and I
don't know who all looked at the calendar I don't know who looks at the
calendar um and i understand we have guidelines from the state and all that
and my question may not be as much to the calendar if we can't if we can't have that be a day off
at those elementaries as much as and i'm going in a roundabout way on this as much as maybe not
having those as polling places I'm concerned about security and people
walking right through an elementary school and think they walk through I
think it's at the big at the opening of the building but I understand what
you're saying because we have high schools and all that now you have to go
through the maze to get in so you know I'm not advocating a change in the
the calendar as much as I'm saying we really need to look at our polling places. And I'll
move the adoption of the calendar. That's not a problem. But I think we need to figure
out the issue of using elementary schools for polling places during the year. Because
I don't want anybody walking in.
Mr. Fraley.
Mr. President, two things.
Ms. Fraley.
I understand that's a concern.
This was discussed during the calendar creation process and also with our security team with
the same concerns about polling places.
So the question is not as much about the calendars as about the polling places.
Yeah.
Right.
Correct.
Okay.
So I don't know if there's any preclearance required for changing polling places.
And so that's kind of out of our hands, but we would agree that we need to make note of
that maybe for upcoming elections yes any latitude we have in terms of
changing polling places I'm all with you on that one okay I move 13 and 12 and 13
11 12 whatever we have well we don't know you're gonna do one at a time I
believe so okay I move yeah I'll move 12 and 13 11 and 12 11 and 12
Well, uptake.
Yeah.
Second, Mr. Huckabee.
Okay.
So I have a motion by Dr. Proctor and a second by Mr. Huckabee to approve the 2013-14 instructional calendar
and to approve the calendar waivers related to the instructional calendar.
Any discussion?
Madam President.
Mr. Adams was in first.
The question, I guess the thing would be that I would say is that I don't think it's very often that we would have election days
during the week except for a national election.
Secondly is that we do have, for instance, in school board elections,
we have early voting at some places as well.
So we can't change things because of that.
But just a comment.
Mr. Mahalsky.
Yes.
Mr. Cornell, I believe it was, was asking about the calendar
and potentially having an earlier start date.
And we know that there's legal reasons why we are unable to do that.
I do know we're going into a legislative session.
here in the next month.
Our legislature will be meeting in their biennium.
I don't know if there's any discussion
whatsoever on changing that.
My question is, though, is if there
was legislation that would allow us, I think many of us
would probably like to start school a little bit earlier,
how long would it take?
Obviously, we're about to approve a calendar.
I'm guessing there's a lot of planning that goes into that.
Would it be set if that were to happen in this legislative
session, and then the following year,
potentially you could you could move it back up or just a question for the
upcoming school year 13 14 we wouldn't know until June of 2013 so we couldn't
do it then right but 1415 if it's past this session then we could and on the
part of the staff the ex-lakers that we would love to have that local
flexibility and I think that's the agenda it's been on Taz's agenda it's
been something that we've pushed for in groups I'm a part of I think this board
has been very clear without it having a formal adoption that we would like to have more local
control our calendar we can encourage you all to call your state representatives right right
so we have them okay we have a motion and a second any other discussion hearing none
will proceed to vote all in favor raise your right hand and say aye aye aye
Aye.
Post.
Motion passes 7-0, numbers 11 and 12.
Okay, now where am I?
Okay, action item number one.
The chair will entertain a motion for the attendance boundary modification.
Matter present.
Mr. DeBrell.
I move that the board approve the attendance boundary modification
as presented at the November 19th board meeting.
Second.
I have a motion by Mr. DeBrell, a second by Mr. Adams,
that the board approves the attendance boundary modification
as presented at the November 19th board meeting.
Any discussion?
Dr. Proctor.
Good comment.
My intent was not to splinter one section,
so no one else is to blame for that comment.
My intent was what are we going to do.
We asked for public comment, but actually we never heard back the staff recommendation
on those public comments on the two different plans that were submitted.
I know they were posted on the website.
I didn't get notified of those being posted, the upside and downside.
So I think we can improve on that.
and also on the website it mentioned the overall facilities plan for the district
and I think what we need to do very soon is lay out and give people at least a
general picture of where we think we're going because we talked about two
elementary schools last Monday and you know there's talk of a high school here
and something there and I mean it's not a given what we're going to do but we
can give them our best I think estimate on what to do the process we use this
time I think we can revisit it there was never a motion in a second to use it
there was a consensus direction by the president to the administration to do it
I appreciate everybody who talked tonight you can see everybody has
concerns for their children which is absolutely great because we always want
parents to get involved in in the school system itself I would not vote for a
change if one were proposed unless we gave it time again for people to look at
I don't think it would be fair to say okay now we want to change a B C and D
tonight and then not let let people respond so given all that that's just my
comment on the state of affairs dr. Proctor I have a couple of comments
about what you said and it would be great to be able to kind of do a long
range forecast and tell people what we're kind of thinking but I think we've
heard from speakers tonight why that is very dangerous because some people told
members of this audience where they'd be going to school well then they hold on
okay one moment please and moving to the because we have the fastest growing
growing subdivisions in the state of Texas within our attendance boundaries and one of
the fastest growing subdivision areas in the country that feed into KDISD, I think it would
be impossible to give a long-range forecast of what happens.
It's never easy, as we know as a board, to vote to send someone to a school and they
thought they were going to someone else, split anyone.
anyone, I would have pure feeder patterns at every school if it were possible because
I believe in that.
I think it's important to have a support group.
But to split a feeder pattern unevenly or as 60-40, 50-50, you have a group of people
going with you that you will know.
But to have 25 or 30 kids split off from 500, it's unthinkable.
Right.
So, and to predict where it's going, Dr. Proctor, with the amount of growth that we have, and
from our feedback, I just will say that I think that this process has worked better
than any process we've done to date.
We have thousands of people who have given us feedback instead of the 40 or 50 at a time
that come into a room.
And one of the speakers said very well tonight that you hear from the angriest people, the
loudest and this process allowed us to take all of their feedback and it
organized it in a way and they did the administration did present to us what
their findings were we had that presentation at a meeting and if you
haven't had a chance to go over it I'd be happy to take a recess and Maria
could you send him the link to all that information and you could look at the
comments from the public and I I may name the comment yes yes I I looked at
the links. My question is, I did not see a response to the two plans that people submitted
according kind of to our guidelines and we heard from some of them tonight and I think
if we're going to ask them to do something, they ought to be responded to and that was
on the Q&A the next day that I did not know about. And actually on our Q&A statement,
it talks about where we're going next with our long-range plan if you read
that particular link it talks about another school in another area so what
you're just saying is we have already done it maybe we ought to back off if
we're gonna follow your lead mr. Fraley thank you madam president actually the
district has a practice of adopting a ten year facilities master plan okay
that really is updated really annually.
It's reviewed, and prior to any new referendum, it is revisited.
That's why we continue to have the annual demographic update,
which some districts do it every other year or every several years
when they want to do a referendum.
We update it annually because we know we're fast-growing, so we have that.
And we have a map out there already that shows school sites
that you all have approved are purchasing.
There are noted on the map where the next schools will be.
What isn't found on the map is who will be going to that school.
But you have an idea of who is kind of in, I think the term Tom uses is catchment area,
the natural pieces, which is not as easy when you're so densely populated like we're in
the Southwest.
Sure.
And so at some point someone is closer than someone else who is going there.
And so we do appreciate that.
that. But there is a 10-year master plan that is updated prior to any referendum. We have
a demographic study that's updated on an annual basis. We can know if the assumptions based
on the purchase of school sites and dates of anticipated school construction openings,
if those are changing because of the demographic shifts in terms of population growth, then
you have time to adjust that.
Is that readily available to the public?
The map, that I don't know. I know it's been presented publicly several times.
Maybe that's something you don't have a map of.
We'll look at that. Good point actually.
If I could, we certainly know where the property is and when we might roll those out in the future.
We can probably provide that information.
Obviously over the next five years is probably a little more understandable than it is for what's going to happen in ten years.
Oh absolutely.
Absolutely.
And if I could just one other point of clarification and I believe it was the meeting where we
actually made the recommendation last month buried at the end of that presentation Dr.
Guzman evaluated the other plans and did give a response in public.
Mr. Griffin you had your hand up.
Mr. Gaddow could you mind explaining to people just the difference between say splintering
and mobility?
mobility, it seems like people have a misconception or they're a little confused on those two
topics.
Yeah, I'm glad you asked that question.
After Dr. Proctor talked about that last week, I dug into the books too and looked at, you
know, quite a bit of research over the last week, including the National Longitudinal
Studies that were done.
And they make a clarification between mobility in the general term, which is just people
moving for whatever the reason may be in a lot of instances that's a
socioeconomic driven or personal choice driven perhaps they have a family issue
that they need to address and strategic or structural mobility which is done
arguably to improve the status of that that student body there so rezoning
would fall into that latter category where you're taking kids out of a
crowded school rezoning them because the thought is that they'll end up being in
a less crowded school and better be be able to better take care of the the
students going a little further taking a look at these studies and this is in the
National Education Logit and Tutorial study students who made strategic school
changes to seek a better educational placement in general reported positive
positive academic impacts, while students who made reactive school changes due to intolerable
social or academic situations were more likely to report negative aspects.
And similarly, the National Institute of Health, some of the research that they did, talking
about the groups and how the groups were, that if you had a large amount of students
going from one school to another, what they call a mixed pathway, because they weren't
coming from one school that you know they they tended to do well particularly
if they were good students those who weren't good students particularly
tended not to do as well so you have a lot of mixed mixed input on that one of
the studies that was given us last year by one of the one of the gentlemen who
had an alternate proposal on school mobility talked about frequent school
school mobility and what it's associated with, low income status, race, ethnicity, inner
city residents. But it went on to say later in the study that by looking at main effects
without interactions, adjusting for child and family background, the broad picture appears
mostly benign. And after reading through all the input, what came clear to me is that if
you had transition programs in place like we do here in this district, whether it's
a newcomer center or whether it's a ninth grade center and the ability for
your staff to take care of those kids and identify once they come in here you
tend to be successful
Mr. Huckabee the one thing that you know we I brought it up before you know that
I know a lot of people have bought because a realtor told them you know if
you buy your house here this is where you're going to go you know I want to
make sure everybody understands we don't tell villagers anything at all we don't
tell them you're guaranteed don't go out there and sell that block and you
guarantee they're gonna go there we don't we don't even talk to them you
know who they are and to rest assured that is as a growing district because
we're growing and we have to build a school out here where there's nothing we
have to move people and to fill that school until everything is built up
around it there you know or we could do like some districts do wait until
everybody's built their houses there and then go drop a school in there but in
the process you're going to have schools that kids are crawling all over the top
of each other and so it's a double-edged sword you got you know people are going
to have to realize it sometimes you're going to have to move and best laid
plans you know my high school where I work at has been there for almost 30
years now and I know people who have bought within the last four or five
years next to that high school hoping to go to that high school and as soon as
their kid become a freshman get sent somewhere else and and so understand
that's a different district just clarify well right yeah different district but I
want you to understand that it's going to happen it's going to change you know
we didn't do that one mister we don't be careful so so realize that those things
are going to have to change whenever either the lack of population or overabundance of population
is going to dictate those kind of changes and we're not picking on anyone when we make those
decisions mr mr debril um i appreciate all your research tom and all the effort that you put into
this and dr proctor some of your research but my comment goes mostly to our job as trustees
These we're entrusted with obviously the welfare of these wonderful young people.
We are entrusted with the community's resources as far as their funds and their tax dollars.
But we're also entrusted with the community's values.
And I think that through this process it is very clear that pure feeder patterns is one of our community's values.
And this weekend I spent some time thinking about that.
And I thought about a piece of ancient that goes something like this.
All things are lawful to me, but all things are not helpful.
All things are lawful to me, but all things don't edify.
So for me, the question isn't whether or not it hurts a child if we splinter them.
It's how much does it help them?
How much does it inspire excellence in those children?
and we will have to divide up some schools because we're growing 60 40 50
50 they're going with a large group but putting 25 kids in a high school of 2000
would be extremely detrimental to those kids yeah maybe a few will survive but
will they achieve excellence and that should be the goal for this district
that's why I ran for this board so we can encourage kids to achieve excellent
not just survive so I think that's what we need to take on.
I told him to say that.
Mr. Fraley. So who wrote that ancient wisdom are they still alive?
No I'm kidding. It's a gentleman by the name of Paul I believe
to a letter to a group of people in court.
Mm-hmm.
He had Katie in mind, right?
Yeah, he had Katie in mind way back then.
Go Tigers.
One thing I want to clarify.
During the excitement of Burr's discussion, some comments were made regarding realtors and whatnot.
And I want us to be very clear.
No one is being critical of realtors.
We're making comments about some things.
And we know that realtors are, they really are our friends.
They're our biggest cheerleaders, and they promote this district like nobody else, I guarantee you that.
So nothing is meant to be disparaging to realtors.
It's just that when sometimes their name is dropped, they get credit for something,
maybe even blame for something that they had nothing to do with.
But we do appreciate our realtors and all they do in promoting our district.
They're our biggest cheerleaders, I guarantee you that.
Well, and we certainly hate to splinter or split any feeder pattern,
but I believe that our goal of the board that I've seen is to get to pure feeder
patterns as soon as possible as soon as when we're looking at an area and we can
last year is a perfect example I amended a motion on the floor that night because
the district did exactly what we asked them to do the week before which was
balance the numbers between schools because we didn't like the numbers and
when they came back with the presentation it caused a splinter that I
couldn't live with that value was more important to me than a number in a
building because having children together and to go unified to a place if
we can get to that that's a value I know that is high in the community and it
certainly is high with me and while our family moved here because of the school
district the same way all of you did and thank you for coming thank you for
bringing your incredible children and sharing them with us it's because of you
that we have this problem it's because of you and your children and our
teachers doing such an incredible job that Katie ISD is the fastest one of the
fastest growing school districts you moved here because of that and now
you're contributing to it and we are grateful for you and it's also your own
fault mr. Griffin I would just like to talk about the procedure that was
recommended by the administration I think it was a great recommendation we
got the most input that we ever had for ABM. I think it was the fairest input. It
allowed Mr. Gunnell, like he mentioned beforehand, he got to see where the
problems were and he specifically gave us a brief targeted to some of the
issues that we heard out here. Now a lot of people weren't able to come to every
meeting but those issues were addressed from the podium. I thought that was
extremely good and I think the final point is it allowed the administration
administration to look at the district as a whole and take care of today's problems, set us up for tomorrow, and it kept anybody from having any personal prejudice, say from the board, to try to influence a decision incorrectly. So I think it was a good procedure that was recommended and that we followed, I thought, really well.
Thank you Mr. Griffin. Thank you board members for your discussion during this time.
We understand that the vote we're about to take is going to make some of you happy and
some of you not and wish it could make everyone happy. We'll get there as soon as we can.
At this time board members we have a motion on the floor. Motion by Mr. Debrell, a second
by mr adams that the board approves the attendance boundary modification as presented at the november
19 board meeting any further discussion hearing none we'll proceed to vote all in favor raise
your right hand and say aye aye opposed the motion carries seven to zero all right next item
Is the amendment to the...
Yes, I do.
Madam President.
Mr. Adams.
I move that the Board of Trustees approve the resolution pertaining to the resisions of the Section 125 plan documents
and authorizes the execution of the amendment that modifies these plans that you must read now.
Second.
I have a motion by Mr. Adams, a second by Mr. Michalski,
that the board adopts the resolution pertaining to the revision of the Section 125 plan documents
and authorizes execution of the amendment that modifies these plans.
The resolution reads,
Whereas, Katy Independent School District, the district,
maintains the Katy Independent School District Cafeteria Plan
as amended and restated effective January 1, 2011, the plan,
and whereas in order to address certain revisions to the plan as desired by the
board the board desires to adopt the amendment to the Katy Independent School
District cafeteria plan effective as of January 1 2013 therefore be it resolved
that effective as of January 1 2013 the form terms and provisions of the
amendment to the Katy Independent School District cafeteria plan called the
amendment a copy of the form of which is attached here to is hereby authorized
ratified approved and adopted and further resolved that the appropriate
officers of the district hereby are authorized to execute and deliver in the
name and on behalf of the district the amendment such approval to be evidenced
conclusively by any such officers execution thereof and further resolved
that the adoption of the plan and all prior amendments thereto is hereby
ratified and confirmed and further whereas the board previously adopted the
GEMFLEX cafeteria plan portion of the plan now in called the GEMFLEX plan
which sets forth the terms of the health flexible spending account and dependent
care flexible spending account portions of the plan to the extent that the terms
of the GEMFLEX plan are not inconsistent with the terms of the plan and whereas
in order to make changes desired by the board the board has determined that the
GEMFLEX plan shall be amended and restated to incorporate these changes
effective as of January 1, 2012. Therefore, it is hereby resolved that effective as of January 1, 2012, the restatement of the GEMFLEX plan, called the restatement, a copy of the form of which is attached here too, is hereby authorized, approved, and adopted, and further resolved that the adoption of the GEMFLEX plan and all prior amendments thereto is hereby ratified and confirmed, and further resolved that the appropriate officers of the district are hereby authorized to adopt the GEMFLEX plan.
to execute and deliver any and all documents and instruments and to take any and all such
further action in the name of and on behalf of the district which such officer determines
to be necessary, appropriate or desirable in order to carry out the general intent of
the foregoing resolutions, the signature of any such officer being conclusive evidence
of such authority and further resolved that all prior lawful actions taken or caused to
be taken by any appropriate officer in the name or on behalf of the district in connection
with the matters covered in the foregoing resolutions are hereby authorized, ratified
and confirmed and further resolved that in addition to and without limiting the
generality of the foregoing the directors and appropriate officers are
hereby authorized to take any and all other lawful actions or to cause the
same to be taken in the name and on behalf of the district that any such
director officer may deem necessary or appropriate to affect the intent of and
the actions contemplated in the foregoing resolutions signed this 17th
day of December 2012 Rebecca Fox president Katie ISD Board of Trustees
All in favor?
Oh, no.
You don't have to read that.
Do I have to read this one?
You don't have to read it.
Am I finished reading?
No, you're not.
I'm right?
Yeah.
You have a care reimbursement plan and all that.
Yeah.
You're good.
All in favor?
Raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes 7-0.
Hallelujah.
Next.
Before you stand out.
Madam President, we do have two items we're going to recess and come back and take care of.
Any action you do will be done out here, but a lot of folks probably won't be here.
So I want to announce a first and a last.
This is Dr. Grooms, Andrea Grooms' first formal board meeting.
I knew he was in communications.
And Mr. Lenny Shad's last formal board meeting.
He will now be leaving us, going to work someplace a little bit east, down off 290 and 610.
So, Mr. Shad, Dr. Grooms, welcome.
Mr. Shad, goodbye.
Thank you, and best wishes.
Okay.
Merry Christmas.
And the training at this time?
They are in your report, the donations there.
there and also training it shows that all board members have passed the
requirements so to remain on the board and not be sanctioned or sent to
detention so how could be you barely made it thank you Maria for at this time
we'll recess into closed session. The board will now convene an open meeting.
Today is Monday December 17th 2012 and the time is 10 45 p.m. The board met
earlier this evening in closed meeting. Any action arising from discussions in a
closed meeting must be taken in a subsequent open meeting. We're still in
compliance from earlier. Action item number two level three FNG appeal FNG
dash one three dash 002 colon 011 dash a we will not be taking action on this
item tonight but we'll take action at the next regularly scheduled board
meeting in January. The board chair will now entertain a motion for the level
President level 3 fng appeal mr. Mahalski I move that the board deny the
level 3 fng grievance fng 13-0 1 4-a thereby upholding the decision of the
level 1 and level 2 hearing officers second I have a motion by mr. Mahalski a
second by mr. de brel that the board deny the level 3 fng grievance fng
G-13-014-A, thereby upholding the decision of the Level 1 and Level 2 hearing officers.
Any discussion?
Hearing none, we'll proceed to vote.
All in favor, raise your right hand and say aye.
Aye.
The motion carries 7-0.
That concludes the business before this board.
10-46, this meeting is adjourned.
Official documents
Motions and votes
Recorded actions
The motions and votes for this meeting have not been recorded here yet. Whether any were taken is not stated either way. The agenda and the recording above are the primary sources.